are any utilities supposed to be included in rs legal rent?

[annacry]

I recently found out, after obtaining my rent history, that I'm in a rent stabilized apartment, and have been for the last five years. I was never given the standard RS lease, any renewal rider/document that mentioned the apartment was RS and there have been some overcharges that I'm evaluating negotiating a settlement with my landlord/hiring a lawyer and going to court.

However, a friend mentioned the other day that in almost all cases the legal rent in a rent stabilized apartment was supposed to include utilities. I've paid for mine for all five years. Is my friend right? How would I find out either way? My lease does say I'm responsible for utilities, but it's not an RS lease, so if notice was required, does this count? If utilities are included, this would increase my claim substantially as mine are ridiculous- generally $500 per month.

Thanks in advance.

[TenantNet]

You should get legal advice ASAP with an experienced tenant attorney, before you talk with the LL. In general there's a 4 year statute of limitations on overcharges, but not on RS status. You could negotiate better, or worse. And if you litigate, there are situations where your situation might not guarantee a RS status. A rent history is just one piece of the puzzle.

Your friend's advice should not be relied upon, but you should investigate.

In many units in NYC (and this is not a rent stab thing), the LL will supply heat and hot water, but that's it. Electricity, cooking gas, phone, cable TV and internet are on your dime. Make sure your heat is from a central heating system for the building, not individual to the unit.

[Sky]

$500 a month in utilities???
This seems inordinately high: is this for gas and electricity only? Could you be paying for electricity usage not related to your apartment (public area lighting and/or another apartment's electricity routed to your Con Ed meter)?

My building had shenanigans of this type many years ago where the LL routed two apartment's electrical usage into a single apartment's electric meter with the tenant unaware that he was paying for two apartments' worth of electrical usage: the scam was that the LL would then bill the tenant without a functioning meter for a monthly electrical fee in addition to the rent, and pocket the money. I think he was doing another variation where the public hallway lighting was routed into tenants' electric meters so they were unaware they were paying for the building's electric usage. Another twist is the LL used to rent out individual rooms within single apartments to students, several students per apartment, effectively running RS apartments like a boarding house, with falsified DHCR 'ghost' lease registration (i.e. no one living in the apt. had signed a lease), and with the utilities for those apartments registered in the names of people that the occupants had never known (but in a name different from the fake tenant registration)... utility bills would arrive in the mail each month and the residents sharing the unit would pool their money and send in their payment to Con Ed (and quite possibly paying another apartment's electric bill as well, if both apartments were routed to one meter). Who knows how many permutations there were to this theme? Con Ed eventually busted him.